Kathlene Ritch, soprano

Kathlene Ritch studied music at the University of Texas at Austin and received a Bachelor’s of Music Studies degree in 1996. After graduation, she taught voice and piano, worked on a Holland America cruise ship, and then moved to New York City in 1998.

While there, she was fortunate enough to earn her living as a musician singing with such noted ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Vienna Philharmonic, and the American Symphony Orchestra. She has sung under the batons of Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Sir Colin Davis, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. In 2001, she made her solo debut at Lincoln Center with the American Symphony Orchestra in Listz’s Dante’s Inferno. With that same ensemble, she recorded a live concert version of Die aegyptische Helena as Hermione opposite Deborah Voigt’s Helen. As a pianist, she has accompanied school and church choirs, professional soloists and ensembles, and has also been musical director of many shows and revues.

She returned to Austin in 2002 and spends most of her time as a personal chef, but she continues to sing with such groups as the Texas Early Music Project, La Follia Austin Baroque, Wild Basin Winds, and the Chamber Soloists of Austin. She is also a member of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and the Grammy-nominated group Conspirare, and is a featured soloist in their PBS special “Conspirare, a Company of Voices.”